Together
by SilentDaughter
Summary: Little drabble that takes place after my other story, 'Cry'. Reflections from both Tony and Ziva on just how much the other means to them and how they got to where they are now. Can be considered a stand alone story.


**For Hippiechic81 who asked about a sequel to** _ **Cry**_ **, here it is.**

 **Takes place a few hours after the events of** _ **Cry**_ **and there may or may not be another follow up. It all depends on how you lovely people react to this installment.**

 **Per usual, I own nothing and I receive no benefits. All mistakes are mine.**

 **NCIS**

Both men had expected to see her sitting at her desk as they stepped off the elevator. What they didn't expect, however, was finding her huddled in the corner of her cubicle. Her face was tear stained and her nose looked like it had been rubbed raw. The supervising agent shot a look to his second in command before taking the steps two at a time up to MTAC.

Tony threw his jacket across his chair before stepping around his partner's desk and situated himself next to her. She was still wearing the same clothing she had on at the house and Tony could see small smears of her father's blood on her shirt. He understood what it felt like to lose a parent but he couldn't understand the sudden pain and loss she felt. Afterall, his mother had been sick. Her father had been mowed down by two assholes in a car wielding machine guns.

Ziva sniffled and he stood, gently pulling her up with him by her elbow.

"C'mon, Zi. There are other places you should be right now and here is not one of them." He helped her into her jacket and grabbed her backpack from underneath her desk. Grabbing the keys for the charger, he led her into the elevator and into the car. Tony got her situated and buckled in her seat before hopping into the driver's side and taking off towards his apartment. The entire ride there was nothing but silence and her sniffles. It worried him.

When they got to their destination, Tony parked and turned off the car before helping Ziva up to his apartment. He sat her down on the sofa before heading to his room. Tony reappeared moments later with a pair of sweatpants and a sweater. He laid them in her lap and kneeled in front of her.

"Why don't you go take a warm shower and change into some clean clothes. I'll make dinner and then we can talk...or not talk. It's all up to you, Ziva." She took the clothing in hand and stood.

"Thank you, Tony." With that she disappeared into the bathroom and Tony tasked himself with making dinner.

 **NCIS**

It had been nearly an hour since she had gone into the bathroom and Tony was quickly becoming nervous. He knew that she wouldn't do anything but he was so used to seeing her so strong and unafraid that this side of her was all uncharted territory. Turning off the burner on the stove, he walked through his bedroom and knocked on the bathroom door. There was no answer but he could hear the shower running.

"Ziva? You okay in there?" Still not getting a response, he jiggled the handle and was mildly surprised to find the door unlocked. "Zi, I'm coming in okay…? I promise not to look but feel free to use your ninja skills." Even if he had wanted to see - which he didn't - the heavy steam made seeing his hand in front of his face almost impossible. Blindly reaching for the knobs of the shower, he shut off the water and pulled a clean towel from the side cupboard. He flung the towel over the top of the shower bar and cracked the window open a few inches.

"I'm going to go finish cooking so just come into the kitchen when you're ready." Having already invaded her personal space enough, he left but made sure to leave the door open halfway.

In the end, he only had to wait a handful of minutes before the squeaking floorboards gave away another presence.

"Hey, food should be ready in a few minutes." She didn't say anything but he could feel her staring at him.

He could always feel her staring at him. All these years the two of them have had this _silent understanding_ with each other. They didn't needs words to explain what they thought or what they felt but a mere glance spoke volumes. McGee teased them about it occasionally and Gibbs had been bringing up Rule 12 a lot more frequently but nothing had happened before or was currently happening.

But now, the way she was practically swimming in the clothes she was wearing - his clothes - and the way her hair draped over her shoulders and curled at the ends as they dried brought forth something Tony hadn't felt in years. He tried pushing the thought away but it pushed back even harder and he found himself thinking about every moment over the last few years where something she said or something she did made his heart clench and then beat again double time. Hell, just seeing her step off the elevator made his days a little more brighter.

Once upon time he had felt those same things for a blue eyed woman who just happened to be he daughter of one of the most sought after international arms dealers. He had been so head over heels in love with Jeanne that he let himself think of a future with her. He should have had more control of himself because he knew that when the whole operation went down. Jeanne would learn the truth and he would be left alone...again.

So when she had been at NCIS and asked if Tony still loved her, he had to lie. She deserved more than what he could give her; what he had been giving her. In reality, she had fallen for the guy Tony had adopted for the OP, not the man who hid underneath. Part of him had been terrified that she would resent him once she learned who he really was and found all the skeletons that had been building up in his closet so he lied and sent her away. He would never get the look of pure devastation and hate that marred her features for as long as he would live.

From that day on, he buried the hurt and the longing as deep as he could and redirected that pain into teasing Tim and Ziva. For a while they had both tolerated it because of what had transpired but they eventually grew tired of it and began getting back at him. After that, everything had one back to normal.

That was until he began adding just a _little_ more flirtation into his teases with Ziva.

Tony wondered if he affected her as much as she affected him. Little did he know that similar musings were taking form in the woman behind him.

 **NCIS**

Ziva watched as her childish partner moved effortlessly around his kitchen, preparing a dinner that she had no taste for. She admitted it smelled scrumptious but after everything that had happened tonight, she just felt like curling up and forgetting that the world outside existed. However, the man before her was making it difficult to want to forget. For as long as she could remember, he had gotten on every single nerve she had but at the same time, he had weaseled his way into a part of her heart she refused to let anyone into. It was the part she had once entrusted to Michael Rivkin and Ray Cruz. She could not believe she had been so...so...blind to both men that when the relationship blew up in her face, the wall around her heart grew taller and stronger than it had been before.

However, Tony was special. He protected her fiercely, cared for her deeply, and was not afraid to push her to her limits or to admit when he was being an ass. He joked with her and helped her against the struggle of American idioms and helped her to find the part of herself that was more human than the assassin she was groomed to be. Over time, she found herself to revel in the moments she spent with him whether it was late nights sharing takeout at their desks or picking through tons of garbage in dumpsters.

She cursed herself for all the time wasted when then they could have been more than just _partners_ \- even though the mere thought terrified her. She supposes one of the many opportunities that had passed was when they had been stuck in the elevator together after the bombing. A lot had been said in those hours but apparently not the right kind of things. Another missed opportunity had been when Tony was under the influence of a truth serum in Somalia but she had been in so much pain and so ready to die that it had not even occurred to her to ask what he thought of her. Although his answer to her question of why he had been there was simple:

" _I couldn't live without you, I guess."_

That should have been a giveaway to his feelings for her but she had been so out of it that the weight of his words had slipped off her mind like water on a smooth rock. No ordinary man who had platonic feelings for his female partner would travel halfway across the world and be willingly captured for her. The woman he married would be the luckiest woman on the face of the earth.

As the years had went on and man after man had used her for their own gain, Ziva lost faith in ever finding someone worthy enough to spend her life with. In the end, she supposed that she had been sitting across from the one for the last eight years.

"Dinner is served, madam. What would you like to drink? I've got water, apple juice, milk, some funky tasting wine my dad left last time he was here, and beer." Tony's voice snapped her from her thoughts and she sat down on one of the stools at the counter.

"Water is fine, thank you." He handed her a class filled with cool water and she sipped at it while he plated their dinner. Spaghetti with some french bread and a simple salad. He set a plate down for her before moving to the fridge and taking out a container of her favorite cheese and salad dressing. It was becoming increasingly harder to deny the man the food he had prepared when he was taking the extra steps to ensure that she had everything she liked.

So she picked at her food while he made himself a plate and sat across from her.

 **NCIS**

Ziva helped Tony clean up and wash the dishes before moving to the couch to watch a movie.

"Alright, Zi, this one is a classic from 1998 featuring Jim Carrey and a twenty four hour television show." he turned to his guest and found that she had started crying again. Movie forgotten, he rushed to her side and sat next to her.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"What is wong, Tony, is that my father is dead and the last time I saw him we had an argument! I yelled at him for being in the country without proper protection but he just brushed my concerns aside and went on his way to have dinner with the director. Had I known that that was the time I would see him alive, I would not have yelled at him. Even though he was a-a bastard, he was my father and I loved him." Her face crumpled and he didn't hesitate to pull her into his arms. To his surprise, she let him.

"My whole life I lived to serve my father. He gave me a command and I did everything in my power to complete it. After my mother and Tali died, he lost himself in his own world and only fell farther into his work. He trained me relentlessly and only now do I realize that it was so that I would be able to protect myself better than his wife and youngest child could. He was hard on me because he did not want to lose me. I was bitter for so long that I forgot all that he had done for me growing up. He fed me, clothed me, and provided a place safe and warm enough to sleep without fear." Ziva paused to wipe her cheeks and Tony handed her a tissue from the side table.

"What he did to me the summer the Director split us up was something a father should never do his child and I will never forgive him for that but I still love him. I still have of memories of all the times we went on vacation to my grandparents' house or around Europe. I remember all the times he and Ima danced around the living room while Tali and I laughed until our sides hurt. Even though he has betrayed me, he will always be my father and no matter how much I wish he is not, I would not be here if it were not for him. I would not have met Gibbs or Ducky or Jenny. I would not have met Abby, Jimmy, or McGee." She looked at him then and her deep espresso colored eyes saddened even more.

"I would not have met you, Tony." Somehow the thought of never meeting the woman before him brought more pain than he thought possible. He leaned back into the couch and she followed, situating herself underneath his arm and flinging one of her own across his middle.

"I think that no matter the circumstances, we would have met. Even if Kate had lived, you and I would still have met but it probably would have been under some very different circumstances. Honestly, I probably would have met you as we sat across from each other in interrogation." Ziva chuckled against him and he felt a little bit of pride at making her laugh even though she was heartbroken.

"Perhaps, but...Tony?"

"Yes?"

"I am very glad that we met the way we did. I will always be saddened for Kate's death and I will always feel guilty for what Ari did but it allowed me to meet you. For that, I am grateful." He sucked in a deep breath and pulled her in closer.

"Me too, Ziva. Me too. And you know what? We're in this together. You need me to kick some ass, just say the word. You need me to get intel for you, we'll get McSpy in on it and the three of us will go out in blazing glory but most importantly, we're in this together." He promised and she wrapped her arm around him even tighter before relaxing. A peek over the top of her head revealed that exhaustion was starting to take hold.

"Together?"

"Together."

 **NCIS**

A man of his word, he helped her exact revenge on the men that had gunned down her father and Mrs. Vance. Then, when she vanished in Israel, he dropped everything and spent months tearing through every country and continent he went through to look for her.

When he found her, he tried everything he could think of to get her to go back home with him. When that failed, he helped her write a new list and kissed her goodbye on the tarmac before leaving her behind. Not only had he left Israel with a little part of her, he had unknowingly left her with a little part of him.

But now, almost four years later as he watched his daughter... _their_ daughter...sleep did he realize that he had broken his promise.

 **NCIS**

 **I just wanted to make it clear that I did not intend to make Ziva look helpless and weak but I wanted to show that even the strongest of people have moments where they need support from others.**

 **While I am pleased with how the story as a whole turned out, I'm a little iffy on the beginning portion and how it flows with what comes after. I'll probably always have an issue with that but I'll take any word you guys give me. So if you guys like it, it'll stay as it is but if you feel that it could be changed a little, it'll be tweaked.**

 **As always, I hope you enjoyed and feel free to let me know what you think.**

 **Until next time,**

 **-SilentDaughter**


End file.
